Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing the skills employers expect from graduates, but access to AI education remains uneven across higher education. At North Carolina Central University (NCCU), Siobahn Day Grady is working to close that gap by making AI literacy accessible to every student, regardless of academic discipline. As featured in IEEE Spectrum, Grady founded the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research (IAIER) in January 2025, the first AI research institute established at a historically Black college or university (HBCU). Its mission is to equip students, faculty, and the broader community with the knowledge needed to thrive in an AI-driven economy.
Grady believes AI skills are becoming as fundamental as general digital literacy. Rather than limiting AI education to computer science programs, she argues that students across all fields should understand how AI works and how it will influence their professions. This philosophy is especially important at NCCU, which is developing both a computer science program and an AI minor while expanding AI education campus-wide.
The institute has grown rapidly despite the funding challenges historically faced by HBCUs. According to the article, HBCUs account for roughly 3% of four-year institutions in the United States but receive less than 1% of federal research and development funding. Supported by a $1 million Google.org grant, IAIER has already engaged more than 2,800 students, faculty members, and community residents through AI training, research initiatives, and educational programs.
Grady’s commitment to AI education is rooted in her own academic journey. After earning degrees in computer science, artificial intelligence, and information science, she completed doctoral research on authorship attribution using machine learning and natural language processing. She later established NCCU’s Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research, creating opportunities for students to participate in hands-on AI projects before expanding those efforts into the university-wide institute.
Beyond serving NCCU, Grady hopes IAIER will become a model that other universities can adopt. Her guiding principle, AI is for everyone, reflects a broader vision in which AI education is inclusive, interdisciplinary, and widely accessible. By expanding AI literacy beyond traditional technical fields, she aims to prepare a more diverse workforce while ensuring that future AI innovation benefits from a broader range of perspectives and experiences.
